STATUTORY INSTRUMENTS

S.I. No. 73 of 2005

Statistics (Labour Costs Surveys) Order 2005

I, Tom Kitt, Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 25(1) of the Statistics Act 1993 (No. 21 of 1993) and the Statistics (Delegation of Ministerial Functions) Order 2004 ( S.I. No. 664 of 2004 ) and for the purpose of giving full effect to Council Regulation (EC) No. 530/1999 of 9 March 1999¹ , Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1726/1999 of 27 July 1999² , Commission Regulation (EC) No. 452/2000 of 28 February 2000³ , Regulation (EC) No. 450/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 February 2003⁴ and Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1216/2003 of 7 July 2003⁵ , in so far as they relate to employers' labour costs, hereby order as follows:

1.         (1)      This Order may be cited as the Statistics (Labour Costs Surveys) Order 2005.

(2)      This order comes into operation on 17^th day of February 2005.

(3)      In this Order -

“quarter” means a period of 3 months ending on the 31st day of March, the 30th day of June, the 30th day of September or the 31st day of December; and

“Director General” means the Director General of the Central Statistics Office.

(4)      In this Order a reference to a Schedule is a reference to the Schedule to this Order.

2.         This Order applies to undertakings classified for statistical purposes under sections C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N and O of NACE Rev. 1 (set out in the Annex to Council Regulation (EEC) No. 3037/90 of 9 October 1990⁶ , as amended by Commission Regulation (EEC) No. 29/2002 of 19 December 2001⁷ ) which employ 3 or more persons.

3.         Information, the general nature of which is specified in the Schedule, is prescribed as information required to be provided by undertakings to which this Order applies to the Central Statistics Office for the purposes of the following surveys to be undertaken by that Office:

(a)        a once-off survey for the purpose of collecting information relating to the calendar year 2004, in respect of which the forms and questionnaires referred to in Article 5 are due to be issued during 2005.

(b)        a survey, to be known as the Earnings, Hours and Employment Costs Survey (EHECS), to be carried out, subject to section 25(2)(b) of the Statistics Act 1993 , for every quarter commencing with the quarter ending on 31 March 2005, in respect of which the forms and questionnaires referred to in Article 5 for each relevant quarter are due to be issued during the quarter concerned or during the immediately following quarter.

4.         An undertaking to which this Order applies is prescribed as an undertaking required to provide information, the general nature of which is specified in the Schedule, to the Central Statistics Office within the period specified by the Director General in respect of each of the surveys referred to in Article 3.

5.         An undertaking required by virtue of this Order to provide information to the Central Statistics Office shall provide such information by the completion of forms and questionnaires prepared by the Director General in accordance with section 23 of the Statistics Act 1993 ( No. 21 of 1993 ).

6.         An undertaking required by virtue of this Order to furnish information shall be deemed to comply with that obligation where, with the consent of the Director General, the information is furnished by electronic means, and provided that the Director General approves the format or manner in which the information is provided.

Schedule

The following information is to be provided by each undertaking to which this Order applies, for each survey to which this Order relates, on the labour costs incurred by the undertaking in relation to its business (the references to “persons” and “person” being to full-time and part-time employees, apprentices and other persons engaged in the business):

(a)      particulars of the total number of persons;

(b)      particulars of the number of job vacancies;

(c)      particulars of the number of persons who are in receipt of the statutory National Minimum Wage or allowed sub-minimum rates;

(d)      particulars of -

(i)       in the case of the survey referred to in Article 3(a), the number of days not worked by all persons, and

(ii)      in the case of the survey referred to in Article 3(b), the number of hours not worked by all persons in respect of which such persons were paid by the undertaking;

(e)      particulars of the total wages and salaries paid to all persons;

(f)       particulars of liability insurance premiums paid by the undertaking and the percentage which relates to employer's liability, and the total of the following contributions and payments paid by and at the cost of the undertaking as employer in respect of or to all persons, indicating the amount relating to apprentices:

(i)       employer's statutory PRSI;

(ii)      pension schemes;

(iii)     sickness insurance schemes;

(iv)     income continuance insurance;

(v)      maternity, sick and occupational injury pay;

(vi)     short-time working payments;

(vii)    redundancy payments;

(viii)   other employee-related payments;

(g)      particulars of the number of hours worked by all persons in respect of which such persons were paid by the undertaking;

(h)      particulars of the total cost of benefits in kind provided to all persons;

(i)       particulars of the total other labour costs;

(j)       particulars of the source and amount of all employment subsidies received by the undertaking from any source.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Instrument and does not purport to be a legal interpretation.)

The purpose of this instrument is to produce an index of labour costs per hour worked. All EU member states are obliged to compile Labour Cost indices. During 2005 the CSO will begin the process of integrating all short-term earnings surveys and the labour cost survey into one quarterly Earnings, Hours and Employment Costs Survey (EHECS)

¹ OJ No. L63, 12.3.1999, p.6.

² OJ No. L203, 3.8.1999, p.28.

³ OJ No. L55, 29.2.2000, p.53.

⁴ OJ No. L69, 13.3.2003, p.1.

⁵ OJ No. L169, 8.7.2003, p.37.

⁶ OJ No. L293, 24.10.1990, p.1.

⁷ OJ No. L6, 10.01.2002, p.1.